The Black Box
by occupied.vessel
Summary: The wonderful world of OFF and its zones lived at peace, but what will happen when a prophecy is fulfilled and a little girl finds out the true power inside an old, black box? Find out in the book "The Black Box"! (More updates soon!)
1. Elsen

The Black Box had been in Rachel's possession for 9 years now. She had gotten it when she was just a baby, but lately, it felt more like it had chosen her. She never actually knew how she got the Black Box in the first place. From what she remembered, it had appeared out of thin air. Her parents were a bit suspicious about where it came from, but they eventually lost interest in trying to find out what it was and gave up on it. Rachel always kept it on her bedside as some sort of a paperweight.

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One night, Rachel had a bad dream. She had dreamt of a world of eye-popping colors, and shady characters in all black and white. There was one man that stood out from everyone in the dream. He wore a black baseball cap; in fact, all of his attire was baseball-oriented. His eyes were hidden in the shade of his cap, nowhere to be seen. He attacked and killed the ghost-like beings in the streets and the buildings. He seemed alright at first, but things started to unravel as he killed the different people who were in charge of the different-colored worlds. She woke up, extremely afraid of everything. Was this the meaning of the box? She looked at it and saw the most interesting sight ever.

There was a circular clamp on the box that kept it locked. As she woke up, however, it started to glow a bright white. It was almost like a really bright lamp. Out of curiosity, Rachel grabbed for the Black Box and opened it. She was slowly sucked inside as the box teleported into the darkness with her.

It almost looked like a big ballroom of some sort, but it was air that she was standing on. It was like a floor. As she looked down, she could see treetops from some of the places below. It was like what she had seen in her dream... was she still dreaming? Was it real? She supposed that she should follow the order that the bat-equipped man took, and stepped on the first red dot.

She landed on a metal floor, surrounded by water. White water. Her eyes widened as she tried to breathe in. She was terrified. She had no idea where she was, but she had hoped that she was dreaming. She didn't know how the dream ended, but she had a good idea. Everything dying. Even though she was scared, her child-like mind decided that she would continue traveling further and seeing more. She walked forward towards a couple of odd-looking people. They almost looked like dolls. Oversized dolls that could only wheeze and cough out the smoky air around them.

She walked towards the metalic train in front of her as one of the men walked up to her and stopped her. "A... child...?" it questioned itself as it wheezed, grabbing Rachel's shoulder.

The little girl froze as she looked up at him, her eyes filled with fear and worry. She realized that the man in front of her with the tie had the same eyes. "Y...yes..." she said, beginning to cry, "I don't..." she coughed mid-sentence, "I don't know how I got here!"

"Well that's... hhh... strange..." the man said, adjusting his tie. He looked almost afraid to touch the child. "So many... diseases," he said, as if to imply that she might have some sort of deadly disease that would kill him if he touched her, "Are you pure...?"

"Yes," she said coughing, "I'm always pure!" She had no idea what the ghost-like person meant by the word 'pure'.

"I have to... take you to master Dedan," he said, "This looks like something he should... probably deal with."

She looked at him. The name had sounded familiar. It was probably another reference to her dream. The man picked her up as he carried her onto the train, looking at the other man in the front. They looked exactly alike. "I... need to go straight to Alma..." he said, "I need... the alternate route... hhh..." he wheezed again as the other man nodded and started up the train. They were on their way to the boss's office as Rachel held the mysterious Black Box in her hands, rubbing it slowly with her thumb. Whoever this 'Master Dedan' guy was, he might know what the box was for, and why it brought her here.

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_**Hello~! **_

_**This is my first fanfiction, and I wish to write more! If you like it, please comment and let me know! I have been recently going through a lot, and I haven't been able to keep up with my story. I'm really sorry to all of the followers of this story! I'll have the next chapter up soon. I'm just having a bit of writer's block and whatnot. In the meantime, I might be making a different fanfiction~! uwu Thank you all very much for follows and favorites!**_


	2. We've Come to Alma

Rachel had fallen asleep on their mode of transportation as they made their long journey to Alma from the town of Elsens. She had hoped that the man they were going to see, also known as Dedan, would be able to answer the tons of questions she had about this place. It wasn't a place she was used to, and overall she was still a child. She was curious. She wanted to see everything and know how everything worked. She wanted to know what the people in that place did for a living. Who knew, she might help them too!

As the train came to a screeching hault in what she thought to be Alma, the Elsen woke her. "Hhh... wake up..." it said softly as it nudged her shoulder.

Rachel woke up and rubbed her eyes. She looked out the window and stared at the red water, eye-bleeding against the neon green buildings. So this must have been where Dedan was. She nodded and slowly got to her feet, sniffing a bit. The smell of smoke wasn't as bad now. They were farther away from all of it, she guessed. The air was cleaner. The elsen got up to his feet and opened the door for the small girl. She bowed a bit too hard, making it look like she would do a roll of some sort. She laughed at herself a little bit. Walking out onto the ground, her legs had a somewhat static feeling. They had fallen asleep.

It was hard to make this world feel like it wasn't a dream. She had to pinch herself a couple times to know she wasn't sleeping still, to see if the pain was there. The elsen looked down at Rachel. "Hhh... what are you doing...? It looks... painful..." he said quietly and shyly as he coughed a bit.

She looked up at the taller pale-faced dollman. "Oh... It's just..." she cut herself off. She had done what so many little kids do. She forgot what she was going to say, and when she got her thought back, all she could do was try to answer. "It's... it's..."

The elsen shook his head. "N...nevermind..." he wheezed and coughed again before walking in front of her, turning around and giving one last glance to her before looking in front of him at a big green building in the middle of all of the city. "You're in... Alma..." he said as he adjusted his tie.

Alma? This place... Rachel had felt like she had heard the name before. However unclear and uncertain she was about this, she listened to the elsen. He gave background information on the city, and told her about Dedan and how he ran the Zone as its guardian and protector. He told her about the building straight in front of them, and how it was Dedan's office.

She tried to get all the information out of the speech that she could, but she got lost at some parts. After all, she was a small child. She nodded to the elsen and acted like she understood all of what he had just said. The elsen adjusted his tie one last time. She had guessed he didn't want to look too messy for his employer. "Follow me..." he said as he walked toward the building, Rachel walking behind him.

Inside the building, it was a nicer colored purple. It didn't hurt her eyes as much as before outside with the green paint. It was a good idea to bring the elsen along, considering the fact that the building she had stepped foot in was like a maze. She would have easily gotten lost. As the elsen reached the last door, she could see the metalic buildings again, coming to a clearing. The elsen looked down at her, a bit worried. "Hhh... Master Dedan is quite a tough man," he began, "He can be very aggressive and scary, b-but try not to talk back or be scared." he walked through the door, Rachel following behind.

They walked along the narrow walkway, Rachel looking up at the sky and back down at her feet every occassion. She stopped looking up after a few seconds because she began to get dizzy and feared she would fall in the water. The elsen motioned for the little girl to hurry up, so she did.

She held the Black Box tightly in her hands, not planning on letting go for any reason. She was ready to find out what this thing was. It had been in her possession for quite a while.

The elsen walked through the door and into the office, Rachel following behind.

Well, here goes nothing.

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_**Hi guys! I'm so sorry it took me this long to make the next chapter, and the fact it's so short! I've had a writer's block for a while after I made this story. I had to get engaged in a couple Hetalia roleplays to clear my mind and try to help get rid of it. **_

_**So, now that it's gone, I hope you enjoyed this short chapter! Dedan will be in the next chapter, coming very soon!**_ ❤


	3. Meeting With the Boss

**_From where we left off, the elsen and Rachel have finally made it to Dedan's office and they are about to confront him about the serious matter: the "Black Box" and what it's for… if Dedan even knows._**

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The elsen seemed a bit uncomfortable when he and the small girl had approached Dedan's office. He wheezed slightly and looked up at a seat where a shadowy figure was sitting down. "Uhm, excuse me, sir…" he said, barely audible.

The shadowy figure swung his chair around, placing his huge hands on the table and looking down at the elsen and Rachel with a disapproving glare. His face was brought into the dim light from the small windows in the purple building. The creature in front of her looked slightly like a man, except he had no lips. His teeth were huge and took up most of his face, except the huge gap in-between them at the sides. His tongue was firmly placed in-between both sets of ivory-colored teeth. His breath, along with the air, smelled like stale smoke and expired, raw meat. "Shouldn't you be at work?" the taller man said, blowing his breath into the elsen's face threateningly, "You ain't slacking off today, I hope? Because, if you are, we're gonna have a nice little talk."

"N-No, sir! Absolutely not!" The elsen said as Dedan turned his gaze over to the small girl standing beside one of his workers with her small, dark box in hand.

Dedan leaned back into his chair as he stared at the little girl curiously. He tried to keep his voice down on minimum, now noticing that the child was even there in the first place. He was a little confused as to where she had came from and what she was. He wouldn't ask questions to her; she seemed like she was too young to answer correctly with a straight face and not mess an answer up… at least, not that many. "What do you have there, little one?" he asked, gesturing towards the box the little girl held in her tiny hands.

Rachel looked a bit questioned at him, looking back down at the box and then up at him again. "W-Well, I don't know where it came from…" she said the best she could.

The guardian gave a solid nod before looking back over at the porcelain-like creature standing next to Rachel. "Care to explain?" he said in a firmer voice, still containing his temper. He didn't want to blow up in front of the small human child.

The elsen nodded, knowing he would not have a choice. "Yes, sir," he started to speak, coughing a bit before continuing, "This creature got t-to the town of Elsen… it didn't know where it was. I didn't know what the box in its hands was. So I came to see… if you might know, sir."

Dedan pondered for a minute before he looked down at the child again. He reached out a lanky arm towards her. "May I see what you have there?" he said to her as sweetly as he could.

The little human child's arms got slightly shaky as she gave Dedan the box she had held onto so tightly before. He picked it up and squinted his small white eyes. Trying to examine the box, he asked her questions about it and where it had come from. Being so small, Rachel barely knew how to answer any of the questions he asked at all; she did not remember most of where it came from. Even though she was almost completely clueless, Rachel continued to answer as truthfully as she could remember.

He shook his head. "I ain't ever seen something like this before… you better keep your eye on this thing."

Rachel nodded, looking down at her black box. She knew now that she would only learn anything from this box if she inspected it.

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_**Sorry for the long wait, you guys! School's been crazy. Anyways, here's the new chapter of the Black Box! Hope you guys enjoy! **_


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